NPR Features Interview With Co-Author Of New Abstinence-Only Study

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 12 Feb 2010 - 4:00 PDT

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NPR's "Tell Me More" recently featured a discussion about a new study that found that more young teens in an experimental abstinence-only sex education program delayed sexual activity for two years than teens in a comprehensive program or teens who did not participate in a program. In the segment, host Michel Martin discussed the findings with Loretta Jemmott, a co-author of the study and professor at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing.

Jemmott said that the message of the study's abstinence-only program was "different" than abstinence-until-marriage programs. She added, "Our program didn't focus on the moralistic issue of waiting until marriage. It focused on waiting until you're responsible to be able to handle the consequences of sex."

The study was designed around the concept of "elicitation," which involved "a lot of focus groups, hanging out with the young people, trying to hear their voices, trying to understand their attitudes and their beliefs around abstinence," Jemmott said. The researchers were then "able to integrate all their thoughts and their attitudes, their beliefs," into the program, she said. The study focused on 12-year-old students and "their goals and their dreams," as well as how to prevent sex from derailing those goals, Jemmott continued. She added that the students self-identified abstinence from sex and drugs as a way to achieve their goals. "The words coming out of their own mouths were powerful," Jemmott said, adding, "So you design the intervention in a way that gets to them where they are, the children will follow."

Jemmott also discussed how the "fear technique" of teaching that "if you have sex you're going to die" is ineffective for young people, noting that "the powerful message that works for young people is teaching them how to be proud of themselves and how to be responsible and make responsible decisions for their health." Abstinence is "a very positive message that goes right in with that," Jemmott said, adding that information on sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy also should be addressed (Martin, "Tell Me More," NPR, 2/5).

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